t! on Acts 24. i 6. 73 eular ; and, finding both proportions to hold true, then it confidently draweth the conclufion. But here fome will belike objeöí, and fay, If a good Confcience be al, evidence of a perfon's laving intereft in Chrift, Alas ! I fear I never had that evidence and mark, neither am I like to have it : Which obje&ion ninifters ground for thefe two queflions, i. If a believer may ever, or at any time, have a good Confcience ? And, z. What are the characìers and properties of fuch a Confcience ? For anfwer to the firf, We would diftinguiíh a good Confcience, which may be underftood, either, i. Legal 1y, and fo it is a Confcience giving teftimony to the ful.. filling of the law perte&Iy ; taking it fo, excepting Je- fus Chrift there was never a man finceAdam's fall, that had a good Confcience, or a Confcience altogether void of of- fence toward God and toward men. Or, .z. A good Confci- ence may be underftood evangelically, or in a gofpel- fenfe ; ór, as it draweth its conclufion, not from the law, but from the gofpel ; and in this fenfe believers may have and often a &ually have, a good Confcience : Thus and in this fenfe, David, Hezekiab, Paul, and others have drawn comfort from the teftimony of their good Confcience' not drawing its teftimony from, nor founding it upon, the law, and the perte& purity that it requireth, but from, and upon, the gofpel, and the purity that it grad- oufly accepteth in Christ Jefus our Lord. For the zd, viz. What are the properties of this Con- fcience ? (which will clear the former, and all) clear how it comes, that when Confcience challengeth for fin, yet it may be faid, that the believer hath a good Confci- ence, and may take it as a mark of his faving intereft in Chrift) I (hall give thefe four or five properties of a good Confcience,even when there may be fin ; The farti where- of, is, When Confcience is un`iverfal, and impartial in its putting to duty ; thus, faith the Pfalmifl, Pfal. t a; . 6. then /ball I not be afbamed, when I have refpe t to all thy commandments ; when the Confcience difpenfeth not with itfelf in the leaft duty or fin,but its defign, aim, and endeavour is to be in the obedience of all commanded duties, and in the degree that is called for ; it is on thee+ two)..
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